While 2020 presented many challenges, Rocky View County (RVC) Reeve Daniel Henn said the municipality is remaining optimistic as a new year arrives.
“We have to keep the belt tight and work hard to get on the positive side of things moving forward,” he said.
Henn noted the main contributor to a turbulent 2020 was the COVID-19 pandemic. Job losses, business closures, government subsidies and economic lockdowns made the year difficult for most municipalities, he said.
“It turned out to be a much bigger deal than a lot of people thought it was going to be,” Henn said. “I really feel for our federal and provincial elected officials who just didn’t know what they were dealing with. Nothing against them – this pandemic just took everybody by surprise. There was no precedent to go by [and] they just had to do what they thought was best.”
Henn said federally and provincially, officials have done a great job overall of managing the pandemic’s severity.
“Municipal government wise, in a county of 40,000 people, we weren’t really trying to sort out anything other than what we were told by higher-level government,” he said.
According to Henn, an economic downturn in Alberta prior to the pandemic further complicated matters.
“Of course, when that happens, it affects people’s ability to do business and they ultimately lost businesses or had businesses who were not doing very well,” he said. “That is hard to see.”
Henn added, when this happens, people look to their elected officials for relief but there wasn’t a lot that could be done from the municipality’s standpoint.
"I wish that there was more we could have done to help people and small business, but there wasn’t really a lot we could do for them,” he said.
A topic that weighed on RVC council during the pandemic, according to Henn, was the County's penalty fee for late tax payment. He said RVC received approximately 30 requests for the late payment fee to be waived.
“A lot of people have been applying for that penalty to be waived,” he said. “I don’t want to sound like a cold-hearted bugger or anything, but I didn’t support any of those penalty-waiving applications. A lot of people alluded to COVID-19 being a reason, but a majority of the applications were due to people thinking they lived in Calgary, not RVC.”
Henn added not everyone on council agreed with him, which made for intense discussion and difficult decisions.
Another aspect that made the year difficult for RVC was the legal battle surrounding three sanctioned councillors – a dispute that went before the courts in 2020. Additional legal challenges surrounded Coun. Samanntha Wright’s court case after being accused of pecuniary interest, along with her family owing outstanding taxes. That matter will be decided by the courts in early 2021.
“I really wish these things could go away,” Henn said. “There is a lot I would like to say, but the matter is still in court. The majority of council thought we should appeal the decision on the sanctions. With that said, I won’t say too much about that personally.”
On a positive note, Henn said 2020 has shown RVC's industrial parks are still prime locations for big business investment. The County will soon see a Lowes fulfilment centre set up shop in Balzac, along with a Sobeys fulfilment centre and other large-scale industrial developments throughout the region.
"We are close to Calgary, a major airport and at the crossroads of two major highways," he said of RVC's appeal.
Henn added that council is proud tax increases have remained low. Following a three-per-cent decrease in 2020, tax rates are set to increase half a per cent in 2021, according to RVC's budget, which was approved in early December 2020.
“I think when all of the dust settles, there will be a zero-per-cent increase, which to me is a real credit to forward thinking by council and administration,” he said.
The County is optimistic as it transitions into 2021, Henn added.
"We have to all work hard to get back on the positive side of things," he said.
Jordan Stricker, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @Jay_Strickz
